And Todays Dumb Question is from....

[Toolmaker Tim]

Just put new clutch plates in and when I pull the clutch in, I can't turn the rear wheel by hand. It turns ok in neutral so it isn't the brake hanging up. I haven't put oil in yet cause I don't wan to dump it in till I know its right. Ran the adjustment screw in till it touched and backed it out 1/4 turn. There is a little slack in the clutch cable, but the adjuster on the handle bar lever is in all the way. To me that means there is no adjustment after the plates wear a bit and it will just get tighter. I rotated the cam plate with 3 balls in it till it was about where it should have been in relation to before the plate change. In my way of thinking the thicker plates in the clutch should have given me more slack in the cable. All of the plates were under .110, so I should have gained .080 of an inch at the least. The new plates measured .120. Could I have a short clutch cable? Any ideas welcome.

[81xsproject]

It is mostly that the plates are locked up. It happens if it sits for a while. Did you soak the plates in oil before installing them? Try rocking it back and forth in gear.

[psycoreefer]

If you didn't soak them I'd put oil in it, start it in neutral and let it run a bit, then pull the clutch (with your other hand on the brake) and drop it into first. Mine dried out and was "stuck" until the first time I ran it. You don't have to worry about the oil. If you have to take things apart again just put it on the side stand and all the oil will be on the "other" side of the bike. No need to drain to work on the clutch.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Tim,

When the clutch wears thinner and you need more throw, you just RE-adjust the lever/rod at the engine. The adjustment at the handlebar is for WHERE you want the lever to be when it disengages the clutch. Some folks like it almost all the way out, others like it closer the the grip.

The throwout lever at the case should be as far CW as it can be when you set the rod adjustment, so you want to make sure the cable had all the slack available. You might even take the cable end OFF the rod/lever first to set the rod adjustment, then just use a large screw driver or such to push on the lever/rotate the lever to put the clutch cable end back into the holder on the lever.

T.C.

[Toolmaker Tim]

Clutch plates

Yep, I soaked the plates overnite. Didn't intend to, but SWMBO found STUFF for me to do when I wanted to work on the bike. That was Thur. nite and Fri was out the window as far as getting out to the mancave. T.C., I figured that if I have to I can take the lever adjustment locking nut off to get some more room. I haven't put the oil in yet, so I'll mess around with it a while longer. I looked over the clutch plate replacement tech tip a couple of times, so I'm fairly confident I have it back together correctly. SWMBO gets back from Dallas Sun. nite, so I gotta get it finished before I get wacked over the head with a Hunny-Do list

[Toolmaker Tim]

It worked!


First thing I did was pry the clutch throw lever up and pull the cable out of the hand lever. I took the locking nut off the adjusting screw, adjusted the clutch at the engine, and put it all back together. Took it atest run and as soon as I got use to the fact that the clutch actually engages and doesn't slip I romped on it hard. Front end came up nicely. Felt good. Now onto the front fork seals and the fuse box!